Sheets

Following an hours long standoff at a house in Nevada on Thursday night, a Marshalltown man was arrested and charged with willful injury causing bodily injury, assault with intent to inflict serious injury and false imprisonment.

Thomas Daniel Sheets, 35, was taken into custody while authorities served arrest and search warrants related to an assault investigation. According to court documents filed in Marshall County, Sheets had allegedly physically assaulted a woman who is pregnant with his unborn child and confined her against her will earlier in the week.

The Story County Sheriff’s Office and the Nevada Police Department assisted in the operation as law enforcement arrived on the scene at 2:45 p.m. After learning that Sheets may have been armed, authorities sent a heavily armored vehicle to the house.

Officers found Sheets hiding in a crawl space after they spent hours searching and attempting to enter the house. Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips said Sheets had barricaded himself in a remote area of the basement that was difficult to reach.

“He finally was assisted out in-between a wall that was built at the foundation. It was about a foot gap between the foundation and the constructed wall in the basement area,” Phillips said. “We had to basically cut him out of the sheetrock, if you want to call it that, to get him out. Then he was taken into custody without any other incident.”

Story County officers used chemical deterrents inside the house to force Sheets to come out on his own, which Phillips said contributed to the length of the standoff.

“Once that stuff is deployed, we usually let it react for several minutes, and then in different areas of the home depending on where we believe that the individuals are barricaded or concealed,” Phillips said.

Sheets was taken into custody at 6:18 p.m. and is currently being held at the Marshall County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond. The willful injury causing bodily injury charge is considered a Class D Felony. Additional charges are pending as the investigation continues.

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Contact Trevor Babcock at

tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.